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Season 28 is almost here and the news keep pouring. Today, in collaboration with The Springfield Shopper, Wikisimpson‘s blog, we’re going to analyze what we know so far of Season 28 and now Season 29 too! Follow us right after the jump!

Note: This article will be updated with more news as they come out!Attention: This post contains SPOILERS about future episodes!

By clicking on the episode titles, you can access the page of that episode on WikiSimpsons, our great source of information about the show.

For Season 28 updated table please refer to Part 6.

The first Promotional Image for Treehouse of Horror XXVII has been released!

The first Promotional Image for the upcoming “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” episode of Season 28, has been released by FOX thanks to EntertainmentWeekly. The episode airs on October 16, 2016.

Executive producer Al Jean said to EW: “They’re forming a sinister squadron of Simpsons enemies to try to kill the Simpsons. If that doesn’t make people tune in, I don’t know what else we can say.”

Grimes’ appearance will be only as a guest as he joins Sideshow Bob, Kang and Kodos over a shared hatred.

He also added “it’s the first the he has spoken since his death, and he’s certainly madder at Homer than ever.”

New Season 28 Episode Title Revealed: Whistler’s Father

A new script just revealed the title of the sixteenth episode of the new production series [WABFxx], the 28th production season. And the episode, which has the production code WABF16, is titled “Whistler’s Father“! The WABFxx episodes will start airing during the next “broadcast” season, Season 28!

Season 28 News: Writer and Air Date for “Trust But Clarify” has been revealed

The writer and air date of the episode titled “Trust But Clarify” has been revealed. It’s written by Harry Shearer and will be the 5th episode of Season 28, airing October 23rd, 2016. Its production code is VABF21.

The air date for “The Town“, formerly known as “Patriot Games” has been revealed. It will be the 3rd episode of Season 28, airing October 9th, 2016, just one week before the 600th episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“. Its production code is VABF21. Stay tuned for more!

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Al Jean spoke about the episode, where Krusty converts to Christianity, after an incident with Sophie (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), and gets trapped in some ice after being baptized in the winter. In a allucination, his father will appear.

Al Jean says to Entertainment Weekly: “Krusty is nearly going to die, so his mind flashes to the hackiest thing it can think of which is a Frozen parody, and then he sees his dad and his dad talks to him in this hallucination. It’s the last thing Krusty sees before he’s about to die.”

Al Jean however confirms Krusty is not dying in this episode: “I’m hoping fans are even angrier we bring him back” referring to the disappointment in the fans when they found out who died in Clown in the Dump.

Regarding the Rabbi’s death, Al Jean reported to EW last year, “We told the actor that didn’t mean the end of his part in the show. He certainly could come back as a memory of Krusty.”

In this episode, Sophie comes back, voiced by Orange Is the New Black’s actress Natasha Lyonne of Orange Os the New Black, and Al Jean reports “She has converted to Christianty and he really disappoints her, so he converts to try to get her love back.”

Season 28 News: Plot and Guest Stars for “The Town” have been revealed

The plot and guest stars for “The Town“, formerly known as “Patriot Games” have been revealed. It will be the 3rd episode of Season 28, airing October 9th, 2016, just one week before the 600th episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“. Its production code is VABF21.

After Homer catches Bart rooting for Springfield’s football rival, the Boston Americans, he plans a family “hate-cation” trip to Boston in an attempt to show Bart that Boston is a terrible city.

The writer for “The Town“, formerly known as “Patriot Games” has been revealed as Dave King. It will be the 3rd episode of Season 28, airing October 9th, 2016, just one week before the 600th episode, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“. Its production code is VABF21.

“There’s also a special beginning, and a third thing we can’t say. But, for the first and the 100th episode, Bart wrote on the chalkboard, ‘I will not celebrate meaningless milestones,’ so we’ve made sure to really celebrate this one.”

Season 28 News: A trailer for “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus” has been released

A trailer for the upcoming Season Premiere episode of season 28, titled “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus” has been released by FOX. The season premiere airs this sunday, September 25th.

The video has been made private and was removed.

Season 28 News: A new Promotional Image for Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus has been released!

A new Promotional Image for the upcoming Season Premiere episode of season 28, titled “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus“, has been released by FOX. The season premiere airs this sunday, September 25th.

Season 28 News: The Couch Gag for Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus has been released!

Two Sneak Peeks for the upcoming Season Premiere episode of season 28, titled “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus“, have been released by FOX. The season premiere airs this sunday, September 25th.

Season 28 News: New informations for the season have been revealed!

New informations for the upcoming season 28, starting tomorrow at 8/7 on Fox with the Season Premiere titled “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus“, has been revealed in an interview by EW to Al Jean.

A Simpsonised version of Adventure Time is the very first Couch Gag

The Adventure Time creator, Pendleton Ward, sings the very first couch gag of the season, a Simpsons version of the theme song of the show. “It’s the whole Adventure Time opening redone with Simpsons. Homer is the dog.”

Mr. Burns sings at the Springfield Bowl to deal with the past

Mr. Burns will stage a musical at the Bowl, to compensate for a trauma in the past, with Amy Schumer playing his mother in the scenes from the past. “We learn something that might have made him the man he is. We discover he was the equivalent of an Internet fail sensation in, like, 1917.”

Mr. Burns uses a Oculus in the Season Premiere

“Mr. Burns gets an Oculus and hires the Simpson family to play his family so he can pretend to be a family man and we deal with alternative reality and what it’s like to be wearing this all the time” Al Jean continues. Homer will be alone at home and forges a relationship with his neighbour Julia (Allison Janney). Even though Homer sees it as a platonic relationship, Marge sees her as a treat, “She’s someone who likes beer and likes Homer and has absolutely no interest in him. They became incredibly close friends, and then Marge comes back and is not happy.”

The Simpsons will travel to Boston

The family returns to Boston in “The Town” and Homer discovers candlepin bowling. “Homer is thrilled because he learns you can get three balls when you bowl, and they want to move there. I think people from Boston will be very thrilled how thorough it is in its depiction of Boston. The bowling alley is owned by Whitey Bulger.”

Treehouse of Horror XXVII, the 600th episode, airing October 16th

The first story of the 600th milestone sees the return of Frank Grimes, in the form of a ghost, seeking revenge. It’ll be a parody of The Hunger Games and Mad Max: Fury Road that imagines “a world where there’s no water but Burns has it all, and they’re trying to get it back from him. We deal with the fact that these things are very bleak and seem to never end. We say, ‘Okay, contestants…’ as they’re about to start, and Ralph is immediately killed. Wiggum was in the bathroom and he’s like, ‘What? What did I miss?’”, a parody of Hunger Games. Lisa’s immaginary friend (Sarah Silverman) starts killing Lisa’s real friends, while Bart interprets a spoof of James Bond and Kingsman movies. “Bart is recruited by this group that Moe runs and they are trying to discover who this villain is that’s going to destroy the world. It has a very violent conclusion at a Steely Dan concert.”

The Nightmare After Krustmas puts fear in Maggie

“We have a Christmas show where we satirize Elf on a Shelf — it’s called Gnome in a Home. They put this thing in Maggie’s room and it terrifies her because it’s looking at her nonstop, and they tell her it will tell if she’s bad or good or wets the bed.” Rabbi Krustofski, Krusty’s father, will return in an allucination to his son, this Christmas.

The Great Phatsby’s double episode to air in January

The Great Phatsby, the first ever hour-long episode of the show, will bring homage to The Great Gatsby. Taraji P. Henson from Empire will guest-star with Keegan-Michael Key from Key & Peele. It’ll be an episode that tells of the destruction of the friendship between Mr. Burns and and the hip-hop mogul Jay G. “He is an acolyte of Burns and uses the knowledge he’s acquired from Burns to destroy him and Homer is the detatched, ironic narrator in the F. Scott Fitzgerald mode.”

Chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen to guest star

The chess world champion Magnus Carlsen will guest star in an episode talking about the relationship between Homer and Grampa, straining over chess’ strategies. “It turns out that Homer and Grandpa used to play chess a lot, and Homer got better than Grandpa who wouldn’t play anymore. Then Homer learns that one theory in chess is you become good because you want to kill your father, and he wants to see if that’s true. Magnus Carlsen says the only way you can find out is to play one last game against Grandpa.”

The Pokémon Go mania takes over Springfield

Homer and Lisa gets addicted to Pokémon Go this spring, spending money in Lure Modules and other premium content. “Lisa takes the rap for Homer and it starts to make her very upset”, while Bart creates his own game, and he’s making money with it. “Bart goes up to elderly women with no grandchildren and pretends to be their grandchildren in exchange for toys and gifts and cards with five dollars in them.”

Bart’s guilt over his being mean to Lisa shows up

will be Bart’s guilt dealing with him being mean to Lisa. “Patton Oswalt plays Bart’s guilt, which starts very small, and then turns into this huge lumbering fantasy creature that torments Bart.”

Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan from Masters of Sex guest stars to bring Homer and Marge back together in bed

In a sequel to “Kamp Krusty”, “Kamp Krustier”, Bart messes up his parents’ sex life. “Bart comes back traumatized from the camp, and he has to sleep in Homer and Marge’s bed because he’s so upset. Homer discovers that by not having sex, he’s suddenly extremely active and successful, and he’s no longer interested, so Marge takes him to a clinic. They say, ‘It’s always the kids. We tell this to every parent we meet: The kids are always to blame. Moe is there for an anomaly study.”

Donald Trump deals with the Simspons taking him back to University

Mr. Burns will bring Donald Trump back to University when he’ll create his own. “Burns tries to endow a department of nuclear studies but [Yale] says, ‘You can’t do nuclear. How about you endow a department of transgender cinema?’ He’s really mad at how politically correct Yale has gotten, so he takes his money and he founds his own university. He’s so excited to discover that you can have such a thing as a for-profit college.”

Being asked what Trump’s reaction to the episode will be, Al Jean concludes “I guess he’ll sic Putin on us.”

Season 28 Premieres tonight with “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus”!

The very first episode of the 28th Season of The Simpsons premieres tonight at 8/7c on FOX! “Monty Burns’ Fleeing Circus” will kickstart the season, with Amy Schumer as Mr. Burns’ mother. Al Jean reports to Voice of TV and Uproxx: “We said a good character for our plot would be that she’s Burns’ mother in the past and kind of the source of this unhappiness that he has that’s haunted him to the present. She recorded it over the phone, and she was very funny. It’s not a huge part, but that was because we didn’t have the actress until a little late in the process that we knew who was going to be in all three shows.” There will be a reference to The Blues Brothers.

Season 28 News: A Laughable Force next sunday on Fox!

A new trailer for next sunday’s episodes of Fox Sunday has been released. The second episode of season 28, titled “Friends and Family“, will air on Sunday October 2nd.

The video has been made private and was removed.

‘Simpsons’ premiere down from last year, top of the bill for Fox

You may have come across many saying The Simpsons isn’t as popular as it once was – that’s a given, but the importance of it to Fox’s Sunday night schedule is clear to see.

Sunday night (September 25) saw the beginning of the predominance of this season’s Sunday lineup on US TV, with The Simpsons coming top for Fox and coming second outside of sports amongst the coveted 18-49 demographic. The season premiere, in the final ratings, had a 1.4 rating, down 0.1 fromlast year’s season premiere (and down from the preliminary ratings with a 1.552 in unrounded), but had 3.364 million viewers (adjusted down from prelims with 3.672 million viewers), up from last year’s 3.279 million viewers; in terms of viewers, the show came seventh on the night excluding sports. The show also had a 5% share in 18-49 viewers, and was the top show on FOX all night, being the only show over the 3 million barrier on the network.

Elsewhere, Fox’s lineup with veteran animated shows Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers was solid, with a 1.3/4 rating and 2.796 million viewers and a 1.1/4 with 2.601 million viewers respectively. New show Son of Zorn more than halved from its pre-season premiere to 1.1 and had just over a third of the premiere’s total viewers, with 2.821 million viewers. Zornalso had 4% of 18-49 viewers.

Ratings elsewhere were also deflated, with CBS and ABC especially suffering from strong opposition from NBC’s Sunday Night Football which peaked at over 7.6 and 21 million viewers, which won the night in both 18-49 and total viewers. CBS’ night was uplifted slightly by earlier football. FOX came third overall on the night.

FOX’s shows (at least which ones did) declined so much from preliminary ratings as NFL football ran late in 4% of the country and delayed the lineup in those areas, and so football ratings were included in the other shows, which were unscrambled in the final ratings.

Season 28 News: Six Promotional Images for “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” have been released!

Six Promotional Images for the upcoming 600th episode of The Simpsons, 4th episode of season 28, titled “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 16, 2016.

Season 28 News: Four Promotional Images for “Friends and Family” have been released!

Four Promotional Images for the upcoming 2nd episode of season 28, titled “Friends and Family“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 2, 2016.

Season 28 News: The Plots for Treehouse of Horror XXVII and Trust But Clarify have been released

Treehouse of Horror XXVII

In the midst of a major drought, Mr. Burns introduces a Hunger Games-style contest in which Springfield’s children fight each other for a day in Burns’ personal reservoir. Meanwhile, Lisa‘s imaginary best friend, Rachel, is jealous of Lisa’s real best friends and starts killing them. Moe tells Bart that the barflies are actually covert agents and that he wants Bart join their team in Homer‘s place.

Trust But Clarify

Lisa and Bart investigate Krusty‘s suspicious new “Krustaceans” candy. Meanwhile, Homer wants a promotion at the nuclear plant and asks Marge to help him dress the part, and news anchor Kent Brockman struggles to find his feet in the changing media world.

Season 28 News: Two Sneak Peeks for Friends and Family have been released!

Two Sneak Peeks for the upcoming 2nd episode of season 28, titled “Friends and Family“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 2, 2016.

‘Simpsons’, other Fox shows up due to football, by far tops night excluding sports

The chalkboard gag in The Simpsons last night read “I Will Stop Losing 50% of My NFL Lead-In”. Well, technically, it did and didn’t.

Thanks to NFL overrun (7.7/30, 22.7m) and The OT (4.6/16, 12.49m) in the Bob’s Burgers slot, The Simpsons reached its highest 18-49 rating and total viewer rating since last season’s NFL-inflated episode, “Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles“, with a 2.6/9 and 5.997 million viewers (adjusted up slightly from 5.964 million viewers) on Sunday (October 2) night, making it the top show excluding sports by 0.9. This means last night’s episode was up 1.2 (a boost which actually is higher than the ratings a few episodes got last season; nearly 86%) and 2.6 million viewers (again, a boost higher than the actual ratings for some shows last season; just over 78%) from last week, the season premiere. However, The Simpsons was down from last year‘s second episode, 2.7/8 and 6.016m.

The Simpsons came 11th in the week in adults 18-49 (for the main five networks’ shows), with 3.399 million of its viewers in that demographic.

Elsewhere, Fox’s evening was also boosted, with Son of Zorn up 0.5 and Family Guy up 0.4 to get a 1.6/5 and 1.7/5 respectively (FG up from 1.621 unrounded), and 3.638m and 3.468m in total viewers respectively (Zorn adjusted up from prelims, FG had a miniscule drop). The Last Man on Earth barely budged to a 1.0/3 (up 0.1) and 2.496m.

The largest rating of the night was FOX’s NFL overrun from 7-7:47pm with 7.7/30 and 22.697 million viewers, but it is worth mentioning all Fox shows were against football on NBC, which averaged 6.7/22 and 18.057m, which may have deflated their, still great, ratings. Due to NBC’s football, Fox came second on the night, ahead of CBS by 2.3/8.

Season 28 News: The Simpsons visit Boston this Sunday!

A new trailer for the upcoming 3rd episode of season 28, titled “The Town“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 9, 2016.

The video has been made private and was removed.

Season 28 News: Four Promotional Images for “Trust But Clarify” have been released!

Four Promotional Images for the upcoming 3rd episode of season 28, titled “Trust But Clarify“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 9, 2016.

The Simpsons to Have a Virtual Reality Couch Gag!

At the start of “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, the show’s 600th episode airing on October 16, fans owning a Google Cardboard will be able to watch the couch gag in VR! During the 45-second 2D couch gag, a url will appear and, by following that url, fans will be able to watch a 3-minutes version of the Couch gag.

According to EW, “Fans can enter the Simpsonized world of VR via the Google Spotlight Stories app and using the Google Cardboard viewer and their smart phone (iOS or Android). If interest parties don’t have the viewer, they can access a limited version of the experience by turning their phones in different directions”.

To get your viewer for free, all you need to do is go to simpsonscardboard.com and sign up and order it. This is only open to residents of the United States and isn’t available to anyone else in the world.

Season 28 News: Two Sneak Peeks and a Poster for The Town have been released!

Two Sneak Peeks for the upcoming 3rd episode of season 28, titled “The Town“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 9, 2016.

Confusion amounts, numbers like scrambled eggs

*At present, last night’s new The Simpsons is sitting at 1.5/5 in the 18-49 ratings (down from last week, as is expected for a non-NFL-boosted episode) as is a repeat an hour before – however, Fox decided to label that 7pm repeat (“Halloween of Horror“) as new, and in some areas, local NFL overruns completely cocked up the schedule (at least one Fox affiliate in Los Angeles ran the repeat during the broadcast of the new ep to the West Coast), leaving the repeat with 4.326 million viewers… and the new ep with 3.386. So the new ep got beaten by a 7pm repeat which rated better than when it did last year.

Yeah, I’m waiting for the final numbers.

One thing I can tell you is that the presidential debate definitely ruled the roost last night all in, yet the biggest individual telecast was Sunday Night Football which peaked at over 6.6 and 20 million viewers.

Tomorrow, expect a proper ratings post.

A Trailer and a new Promotional Image for Treehouse of Horror XXVII have been released!

A new trailer and a new Promotional Image for the upcoming 4th episode of season 28, the 600th spooktacular “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 16, 2016.

Sunday’s Boston-bashing outing didn’t stray from the prelims with 1.487/5 but fell to 3.221 million viewers, a lower viewer count than both episodes so far this season.

Elsewhere, only Bob’s Burgers was new on Fox’s truncated schedule, with a solid 1.202/4 and 2.793 million viewers. At 9pm, the debate took hold of the schedules with a total 8.6/24 and 33.54 million viewers across the three broadcast networks that showed it (this was 66.5 million with ALL the networks, such as on cable, having their figures added), while NBC showed football with an average of 5.9/16 and 16.62 million viewers.

With a football lead-in, it being the 600th episode and the usual ratings-booster “Treehouse of Horror” episode next week, we could be having some large numbers on our hand next Monday (but by Sod’s Law, will adjust down on the Tuesday).

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

Season 28 and 29 News: Synopsis, Special Guest and Air Date for There Will Be Buds and Treehouse of Horror XXVIII revealed!

Homer gets roped into coaching the kids’ lacrosse team with Milhouse‘s dad, Kirk, who is in desperate need of a friend. When Kirk gets too clingy, Homer vents about how much of a loser he is. Kirk overhears his rant and disappears, right when the team needs him most: the championship game.

Season 28 News: Four Promotional Images commemorating the 600th Episode have been released!

Four Promotional Images commemorating the 600th episode of the show, the upcoming 4th episode of season 28, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 16, 2016.

Season 28 News: A new Promotional Image and details of the 600th Episode have been released!

A new Promotional Image and details of the 600th episode of the show, the upcoming 4th episode of season 28, “Treehouse of Horror XXVII“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 16, 2016.

In an interview with TV Insider, executive producer Al Jean shared more details on the upcoming 600th episode: “When we hit 100 episodes, we opened the show with Bart writing on the chalkboard, ‘I will not celebrate meaningless milestones’—so that must mean our 600th is six times as meaningless! Yes, this is a big accomplishment, but we don’t want to pat ourselves on the back about it. That would be against everything we stand for. Oh, who are we kidding? It’s incredibly cool.”

The co-executive producer Joel Cohen, writer of the episode adds: “Treehouse of Horror. here are no rules with our Halloween shows, but there are certainly times when we’ve gone, ‘Whoa! This is getting a little too gross!’ Then we pull back on the mangling a bit—just to the edge of bad taste.”

In the opening cutscenes, four bad guys, Sideshow Bob, Frank Grimes, Kodos and the Leprechaun opens off the show seeking revenge on the family. In the first story, “Dry Hard”, the kids of Springfield fight to the death in a parched town to acces Burns’ reservoir, in a Hunger Games parody. Cohen comments on parodying the movies so late: “But in a way it’s good we waited, now we can pay tribute to all four crappy movies at once!”

In the second story, “BFF”, Lisa’s imaginary friend Rachel (Sarah Silverman) gets jealous and is on a rampage to kill all of Lisa’s real friends. In the last episode, “Moefinger”, Moe’s bar reveals a secret base for a James Bond spoof. Al Jean says: “Moe and the other barflies are secretly running a high-tech spy network that’s trying to save the world. Some of the action takes place at a Steely Dan concert where everyone is on drugs. We actually got Donald Fagen to make a guest appearance and say, ‘Drugs at a Steely Dan concert? I never thought I’d see the day.’ When we want to meet a certain celebrity, we write them a part.”

Al Jean continues talking about special guests: “Jim Brooks has always been adamant that we take all points of view and never talk down to anybody. The idea that a Republican candidate for president would talk about the size of his penis during a television debate is beyond anything we would have come up with in the writers’ room.”

The voice of Lisa, Yeardley Smith, talks about the success of 600 episodes next: “We re-up your faith in humanity. While everything from the political scene to the weather changes drastically, we are a constant. We are a reminder that, no matter how crazy things get, love will last, families endure, values matter.”

And about the fact that in twenty-eight years, the characters never aged: “We are frozen in time. Homer will always be a slob and a jackass, and Marge will always forgive him. Bart will forever be a brat. And Lisa will never feel like she truly fits in. But they support each other. They hang in, no matter what.”

Concluding, Al Jean talks about a way the show would end, when time comes: “To my mind, the best way to go out would be to have the final episode conclude with the Christmas pageant at Springfield Elementary School that began our first episode back in 1989. That way, it won’t really be an ending at all. It’ll turn the series into one continuous loop that will play on forever.”

Season 28 News: Two Trailers for Trust but Clarify have been released!

Two Trailers for the upcoming 5th episode of season 28, titled “Trust but Clarify“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 23, 2016. The first trailer contains sketches from the other Fox Sunday shows too.

The videos have been made private and were removed.

600th ‘Simpsons’ doubles week-on-week with football lead-in

Halloween isn’t for two weeks, yet The Simpsons decided to broadcast their annual Treehouse of Horror episode, which coincidentally was also the show’s 600th episode. And if that wasn’t enough to get people watching, 15 million viewers were tuned into FOX beforehand, half the number watching the spooky celebration.

Sunday’s episode ranked six in the most-watched broadcast shows in adults 18-49 for October 10-16, 2016 with 3.907 million of its viewers in that demographic.

The episode adjusted down slightly from 3.1/10 and 7.514 million viewers in the preliminaries, but was still the top non-sport show of the night by 1.4/5, a difference both “Family Guy” (2nd most-watched non-sport show of the night; 1.634/5, 3.677) and “Son of Zorn” (3rd; 1.525/5, 3.775) edged over, despite both being down 0.1 from their last episodes.

The “Treehouse of Horror” ep was higher than the rating for last year’s, which had 2.8/8 and 6.75 million viewers, which also had the joy of having an NFL lead-in. Sunday’s ep was the highest “THOH” episode since season 26’s “Treehouse of Horror XXV“, which had 3.6/10 and 7.76 million viewers. The equivalent episode last season was, however, “Halloween of Horror“, which had 1.7/5 and 3.69 million, just over half and under, respectively, what Sunday’s ep received. The 600th episode also achieved a higher audience than the 500th, which had a 2.6 and 5.77 million watching.

After Sunday’s episode, the first four eps are up just under 15% year-on-year with a 2.13 average in 18-49 ratings, and up 23% in total viewers with a 5.006 million average.

The highest rated show on the night was, inevitably, football, with an overrun on Fox attracting 20.102 million and a 7.0 rating. As always, the FOX audience may have been deflated by NBC football, which averaged 4.9/16 and 13.6 million from “Zorn” onwards, with around nearly 9-11 million tuned into NBC during Simpsons.

This coming Sunday’s episode doesn’t have football for a lead-in, so the 601st episode should see figures back in the mid-1s and 3/4 million viewers.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, ShowBuzzDaily, SpottedRatings

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

Season 28 News: Two Sneak Peeks for “Trust but Clarify” have been released!

Two Sneak Peeks for the upcoming 5th episode of season 28, titled “Trust but Clarify“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs October 23, 2016.

Season 28 News: Air date and Details for “Havana Wild Weekend” has been revealed!

The scheduled Air Date for the upcoming episode, “The Last Traction Hero“, has been revealed. The episode is scheduled to air December 4, 2016. Please note this air date can change any time. Be sure to tune in for any update.

The show has been renewed by Fox for Season 29 and 30! It will bring the show up to 669 episodes, the highest for any primetime scripted TV show, breaking Gunsmoke’s 635.

“Take that ‘Gunsmoke!’ You lost a race you didn’t even know you were running!,” said Homer.

Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen and CEOs of Fox says: “This is yet another record-setting moment for what is truly a landmark series. The Simpsons has meant so much to the network, the studio and everyone at Fox, and its continued cultural impact around the globe is a testament to the combined brilliance of Matt, Jim and Al. Congratulations to everyone who works on this groundbreaking series – from the voice cast and producers to the writers and production team – you comprise one of the greatest collections of creative talent in the history of the medium. And to the millions of SIMPSONS fans around the world, thank you for watching all these years. We’re happy to tell you there’s lots more to come.”

The show is averaging 7.2 million viewers across all platforms. The 600th episode registered its largest rating (3.6/11 Live + 7) and seven-day multi-platform audience (9.9 million viewers) since January, plus 1.3 million viewers on Hulu and FOXNOW, the highest in more than three years.

A Teaser for the upcoming 7th episode of season 28, titled “Havana Wild Weekend“, has been released by FOX. The episode airs November 13, 2016. This trailer includes teasers for the other series that airs the same night on Fox too.

The video has been made private and was removed.

‘Simpsons’ ties season low, top for Fox and in scripted shows

After a week off, The Simpsons returned slightly down, but definitely showed the least damage on FOX’s schedule.

“There Will Be Buds” scored a 1.4 rating/share (or 1.384 in the unroundeds) in 18-49s, tying with the season premiere. The episode hit a season low with 3.143 million viewers (down from 3.167m in the preliminaries), and was the only show on FOX over the 3m barrier. The episode tied for the top scripted show of the night (with NCIS: Los Angeles), and also had a 5% share of the audience. Furthermore, Simpsons was more popular among the 25-54s, with a 1.5% share in that audience.

Sunday’s lacrosse-themed episode recorded another decline, however, with it being marginally down from equivalent episode last year, “Friend with Benefit“, which garnered a 1.5 rating and 3.597 million, yet Sunday’s episode was higher than “Benefit”‘s 4% audience share.

Elsewhere on FOX, Son of Zorn paid a visit to fractional town it looks like it may not return from, recording a 0.911/3 rating, yet staying the right side of the 2m barrier, with 2.081m. Family Guy was second for FOX’s night, with a 1.246/4 rating and hitting 2.6m viewers on the dot. Bob’s Burgers hit the ground hard, dropping four tenths from its last outing (which may have had local football as a lead-in to help) to 1.033/3 and declined a fair bit in viewers too with 2.422m.

Top show on broadcast TV of the night was, inevitably, football, on NBC, which averaged 6.6/20 and 18.325 million from 8:30pm-11:45pm. Against Simpsons, there was in the region of 26-29 million tuned into the other three main networks.

Next week, a visit to Cuba sees football before it, so expect the show to zoom into the 2s and 5/6 million viewers again.

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

Season 28 News: A new episode title has been released!

A new episode title has been revealed on Twitter by Al Jean: Singin’ in the Lane, production code WABF21!

In an interview with the New York Post, Al Jean talks about the 30 years with the show, hitting December 17.

“A lot of people who were fans of the show at the beginning don’t watch anymore, but we always have a new audience coming in. It’s a new show to them, which is a pretty amazing thing. And that’s partly due to its animated nature, since the characters always look the same. I look at it as someone who’s under the age of 30 can’t remember life without ‘The Simpsons.’ That’s a weird fact.”

“When we hit 300 episodes I looked it up to see what show had the most episodes and saw that it was ‘Gunsmoke.’ I joked back then that we were heading for them, and here we are, closing in. But it’s never about hitting milestones. There was a definite pride in reaching 600 episodes and it will be cool to surpass ‘Gunsmoke’ … but we just want to keep going if it’s good. The audience will tell us [when to call it quits] when the ratings start to drop.”

Looking back at the start of the current season, September 25th, Jean reports on him thinking he already had an idea it would have been renewed. “I just looked at the ratings. I always thought it was coming back, I believe we’re currently the second-highest-rated show on the network after ‘Empire.’ ”

NYP asked Jean if, after 28 seasons, the show is running on auto-pilot to which he comments “My answer would be I wish we could be on auto-pilot, but every episode is its own struggle. We never get to rest on our laurels. It’s animated well and we make it funny — but we’ve never, from the beginning of the show to now, phoned it in. I work pretty much every weekday of the year trying to figure out how to make the show better. People want [the ‘Simpsons’ characters] to be happy. We’ve always resisted any permanent change to the template because I think, once you do that, it becomes a different show. People ask, ‘What if [the characters] did a time-jump to high school?’ I would say that, rather than do that, I would end the show. It’s gone on so long it has to stay in its current incarnation.”

Jean concludes talking about a future episode he’s excited about: the 666th: “The one I’m looking forward to is number 666, which will fall around Halloween. It’ll probably be a ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episode. Aside from 666, I imagine the next milestone we’ll be celebrating is our 700th episode.”

Season 28 News: A Sneak Peek for “Havana Wild Weekend” and a new detail for “The Nightmare After Krustmas” have been released

A Sneak Peek for the upcoming 7th episode of season 28, titled “Havana Wild Weekend“, has been released by FOX. The episode airs November 13, 2016.

Information about the plot for the episode “The Last Traction Hero“, which will air on December 4, 2016; has been released by FOX. The episode will be the 9th episode of Season 28.

A workplace accident leaves Homer in a cast, and in a position to sue Mr. Burns. This leaves Marge unfulfilled, so she turns to an unexpected source for romance. Meanwhile, Lisa is made “Bus Monitor” and tries to keep the peace.

Season 28 News: A new Sneak Peek and Interview for “Havana Wild Weekend” have been released

A new Sneak Peek and Interview for the upcoming 7th episode of season 28, titled “Havana Wild Weekend“, have been released by FOX. The episode airs November 13, 2016.

In an interview with Variety Latino, Al Jean talks about the upcoming episode: “It was inspired by Dan Castellaneta and his wife who went to Cuba and they wanted to turn in a script. So that was the genesis and it deals with how it’s a little easier now to go to Cuba from America. This episode was written a year ago so we write about what we think will be important a year from now or five years from now. Grampa can’t get affordable healthcare even being a vet.”

Next Jean explains the new phenomenon dubbed “Cubagasm” that is shown in the sneak peak: “Cuba has these old American cars in incredible condition. There’s this phenomenon that old people experience when they’re surrounded by objects from their youth that make them feel younger and they act younger. So Granmpa is seeing all these old cars and he starts feeling younger and better. ‘Cubangasms’ is the medical term that we’re coining for it.”

Jean adds that the episode will have beatiful Cuban music, Bart and Lisa arguing in Spanish, and Fidel Castro: “There’s a Castro joke in the episode where it’s like, ‘I’d be surprised if he’s still alive’ and he is! He’s over 90 now. He’s dealt with presidents since Eisenhower, it’s unbelievable.”

The episode will also explain the prediction of Donald Trump becoming president, once Jean was asked about him having informations thanks to him working with Scott Baio in Charles in Charge, he jokes: “That gives you the Scott Baio connection. Oh my God, it’s all my fault! We were surprised like a lot of people. All I can say is to hope for the best but we will certainly make fun of whatever happens. It is crazy. There was the Trump one and there was another one that was nuts where we had a brochure that said New York on $9 a day and then the Twin Towers were next to the 9 so it looked like nine eleven. I don’t know what to tell you. These things are just nuts. I can’t explain it. We definitely think about the future [when writing]. We’re sort of like futurologists because we work so far ahead.

So for example, when we said Brazil was going to lose the World Cup to Germany we had a joke about how funny it would be if after they lost they would sing Ole! Ole! very sadly. So sometimes we have good predictions.The Trump one was just…what odds would you have given that one?

There will probably something else that will happen, only God knows. I don’t know.”

Season 28 News: A Teaser for “Dad Behavior” has been released

A Teaser for the upcoming 8th episode of season 28, titled “Dad Behavior“, has been released by FOX. The episode airs November 20, 2016.

The video has been made private and was removed.

‘Simpsons’ more than doubles to top night and FOX in scripted shows with football lead-in

As always with a football lead-in, any show after it gets boosted. Well, The Simpsons got boosted up on Sunday by 1.7 from the last episode to a 3.103 rating (share of the 18-49 audience) and a 9% share of the overall audience (up a miniscule 0.002 from 3.101 in the prelims). 7.101 million tuned in as well to see the Simpsons travel to Cuba. The episode tied 20th for the most-watched show on American TV for the week ending November 13th in 18-49s with 3.982 million of its viewers in that demographic. Sunday night’s lead-in was The OT with 6.7/21 and 18.557 million.

The last episode equalling or above a 3.0 rating was the also football-helped “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” 4 weeks ago, which scored a 3.0/10 and 7.442 million viewers. Sunday’s episode was up slightly in 18-49 ratings and down in total viewers and share of total audience. No original episode was broadcast on the equivalent night last year, so no comparison can be made.

Including episodes with a football lead-in, The Simpsons is currently averaging a 2.07/6.9 rating, with a 4.804 million viewer average, up on the same period last year (the season’s first SIX episodes) which had 1.95/5.8 and a 4.42 million viewer average.

Elsewhere on FOX, a 52.7% retention isn’t great for Son of Zorn, with its 1.635/5 looking solid but a non-sport boosted Simpsons last week saw it dip below the point of likely renewal with 0.9; who knows where it’ll be next week, except either high 0s or low 1s. Family Guy was slightly down from Zorn with 1.622/5, and also dropped just 57,000 viewers from it with 3.58m.

The highest rated show of the evening was a 4-minute NFL overrun on Fox, with 8.5/25 and 24.182 million, and second to that, Sunday Night Football on NBC averaging 7.675 and 22.513 million viewers from 8:32pm. Outside of sports, Simpsons was second behind a 60 Minutes containing a presidential interview with a 3.363/11 (the only other show of the night above a 3.0 rating outside of sports) and 20 million viewers on the dot.

Opposite ‘Simpsons’, there was around 25-30 million tuned into the other three main broadcast networks.

In catch-up news, The Simpsons snuck incongruously into the top 25 shows of the week ending November 6 concerning the most-watched shows after 3 days of catch-up. “There Will Be Buds” rose by 0.3 (21% of original audience) from 1.4 to 1.7, tying 24th. Family Guy came above it, as usual, but marginally, increasing 0.6 (50%) from 1.2 to a 1.8, tying 21st to be FOX’s most-watched non-sport show of the week; The Simpsons second – and it appears ‘Simpsons’ will also be FOX’s most-watched non-sport show of the week ending November 13th outside of catch-up, with it beating Wednesday night staple Empire by two tenths of a point (although, Empire‘ll rise by a point or nearly two after three days of catch-up)!

See you next Tuesday with analysis as FOX’s Sunday will go back to normal.

In the interview with Sportsnet, Al Jean said: “He’s smart, funny and we felt like (Gretzky) must have when he met Gordie Howe as a kid.”

Joel Cohen also added: “I’m a Calgary native and consequent Oiler-hater, so 99 and I had a lot to talk about, and even more to trash-talk about — Semenko, Fuhr, Steve Smith bouncing the puck off Fuhr. Through it all, he was as classy and generous as you hope an icon can be. It was almost enough for me to forgive him for repeatedly demolishing my Flames’ playoff hopes. Not quite, but almost.”

Season 28 News: The synopsis for “The Nightmare After Krustmas” has been revealed